Balochi language

Balochi
بلۏچی
Balòci
Balòci (Balochi) written Balo-Rabi in Nastaliq style.
Pronunciation[bəˈloːt͡ʃiː]
Native toPakistan, Iran, Afghanistan
RegionBalochistan
EthnicityBaloch
Native speakers
8.8 million (2017–2020)[1]
Balochi Standard Alphabet
Official status
Official language in
 Pakistan [a]
Regulated byBalochi Academy, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan
Balochi Academy Sarbaz, Sarbaz, Iran
Language codes
ISO 639-2bal
ISO 639-3bal – inclusive code
Individual codes:
bgp – Eastern Balochi
bgn – Western Balochi
bcc – Southern Balochi
Glottologbalo1260
Linguasphere58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi)
The position of Balochi language among Iranian languages.[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
This article contains Balochi text, written from right to left with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Balochi letters or other symbols instead of Balochi script.
A speaker of Eastern Balochi

Balochi (بلۏچی, romanized: Balòci) is a Northwestern Iranian language, spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world.[3] The total number of speakers, according to Ethnologue, is 8.8 million.[1] Of these, 6.28 million are in Pakistan.[4]

According to Brian Spooner,[5]

Literacy for most Baloch-speakers is not in Balochi, but in Urdu in Pakistan and Persian in Afghanistan and Iran. Even now very few Baloch read Balochi, in any of the countries, even though the alphabet in which it is printed is essentially identical to Persian and Urdu.

Balochi belongs to the Western Iranian subgroup, and its original homeland is suggested to be around the central Caspian region.[6]

  1. ^ a b Balochi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
    Eastern Balochi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
    Western Balochi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
    Southern Balochi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "worldhistory". titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  3. ^ Spooner, Brian (2011). "10. Balochi: Towards a Biography of the Language". In Schiffman, Harold F. (ed.). Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Brill. p. 319. ISBN 978-9004201453. It [Balochi] is spoken by three to five million people in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Oman and the Persian Gulf states, Turkmenistan, East Africa, and diaspora communities in other parts of the world.
  4. ^ "Table 11 – Population by Mother Tongue, Sex and Rural/Urban" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  5. ^ Spooner, Brian (2011). "10. Balochi: Towards a Biography of the Language". In Schiffman, Harold F. (ed.). Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Brill. p. 320. ISBN 978-9004201453.
  6. ^ Elfenbein, J. (1988). "Baluchistan iii. Baluchi Language and Literature". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 30 December 2014.


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